Pav Bhaji

This is a famous street dish on the roads of Mumbai but has got famous allover Indian. The Bhaji is the main thing which is served with Pav bun and the combination is exotic. The aroma and color are most inviting for this dish. Its quite nutricious too as it has lots of veggies in it, potato being the main. This compensates for the butter we add to the recipe. I actually served this bhaji with Hotdog buns but that didn't had anything les for the dish except have to be called as Hotdog Bhaji. :-),. I actually grinded my own Bhaji Masala, but u can always use store bought Pav bhaji Masala powders.

Ingredients:
Pav buns - 20
Big Potato -1
Carrots - 1
Cauliflower - 4 big florets
Green peas - 1/2 cup
Capsicum - 1/2 cup
Green chilli -2
Onions - 1 chopped finely
Tomatoes - 1 chopped finely
Red chilly powder - 1 tsp
Salt
butter - 1 tbsp
Red food color - optional
To saute and grind
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Coriander seeds - 2 tsp
Ginger - 1 inch
garlic - 3

Procedure:
Pressure cook all the vegetables from potato to green chillies with 1 cup of water till they become well cooked. This has to be mashed so cook very well. Vegetables are your choice and u can add or reduce any vegetables
Mean while saute the ingredients for grinding with little oil and grind to a smooth paste with water
In a pan heat 1/2tsp butter and add the chopped onions and tomatoes one by one and saute very well. This has to be cooked well but take care not to burn them. To this add the ground paste and red chilli powder. Cook well and add little water if needed.
Mash the vegetables that we pressure cooked. we don't want to see anything whole so mash very well. Add this to the pan and mix well and mash again. Now add the food color if needed (I didn't) and salt.
Finally add remaining butter and chopped coriander leaves
When this is ready toast the buns with butter and serve with Bhaji. While serving decorate with fresh chopped onions, coriander leaves and lemon juice.
Let your soul say yummy while u enjoy..

Palak Paneer

If there is one dish in which my family loves Spinach, my vote is undoubtedly for "Palak Paneer". Its simple and nutritious dish makes my family have an extra bite of chapati. Lets go for the recipe now.

Ingredients:

Palak leaves - a bunch
Paneer - 150gm, cubed
Milk - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1
Green chillies -2
Ginger - 1 inch
Garlic - 4
Cloves -3, cardamom stick - 1/2
Oil - 1 tbsp
Butter - 1/2tsp
Salt


Procedure:

Heat oil in a pan and add cloves and cardamom. After they splutter add ginger, garlic, green chillies and onions. Saute them well and add the washed palak leaves to this. Cook for 3 minutes and turn off the flame to let it cool.

Grind, after it cools down to a smooth paste.

Heat butter in a pan and the ground paste. Add salt and let it boil for a minute. To this add the milk and let it boil for 1 more minute.

You can add cream to this instead of milk which enhances the flavor more. Turn off flame.

Before serving add the cubed paneer pices to the gravy. If the paneer pieces are not fresh, you can deep/shallow fry them and add it.

Serve with ur favorite rice or Rotis.

Vegetable Biriyani

After marriage I had tried Vegetable biriyani so many times. But failure every time. I don't know how such an easy recipe which my mom will make so tasty cud be a flop. But slowly I observed many people cooking and corrected and now I could say its somewat to my mom's level. There are so many things which could get the nice aroma and taste. Starting from ingredients, the amount of sauting, cooking time etc., If we miss few things the taste definitely varies. So experience is the best teacher.

Now, here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Basmati rice - 1 cup

Sliced Onions - 1, sliced

Tomatoes - 1, chopped

Mix vegetables - 1 cup (I used carrots, beans, potatos and green peas)

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Yogurt - 1 tbsp

Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Chilly powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1 pinch

Salt

Whole garam masala (Cloves -3, cardamom stick - 1/2, Cardamom/Elachi-1, bay leaves -1)

Butter /Oil - 1 tbsp

Coriander leaves, chopped - 1 tbsp

Mint leaves, chopped - 1 tsp

Procedure:

Heat Oil in a pan and add the whole garam masala

To this add the Onions first. Let the onions cook to tender and turn light brown. Do this on low flame as it will not burn the onions. Next to this add the ginger garlic paste. Adding this next to onions gives good time for onions to get fried. If we add ginger garlic first then it tends to stick to the bottom of the pan and the onions may not be sautee well

Now add the tomatoes and keep cooking well till it gets mashed

Next is to add the mixed veggies. Now we can add the salt, turmeric and chilly powder but hold adding coriander and mint leaves

Once all the vegetables are mixed well, turn of the flame. Now add the yogurt, lemon juice and chopped mint and coriander leaves. Mix well. The reason for adding at the end is hold the aroma of the leaves wen the rice is getting cooked. Also turning off the flame, helps the yogurt to get mixed well. Now add the clean and dranied basmati rice

Add 1 and 3/4 cup of water and put it the pressure cooker. (Alternatively you can use rice cooker)

After 1 whislte reduce the flame to very low for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, increase the flame and allow for 2 more whisltes. Turn of the flame and open after pressure is released.

Awesome Vegetable Biriyani is ready.

Quick tips:

Addition of lemon juice, yogurt and mint leaves gives a nice aroma and great taste.

Saute the onions and vegetables for the perfect time and add enough oil. A little extra oil means extra taste.

If using pressure cooker, instead of cooking the rice directly in the pressure cooker, use a separate bowl that will fit in your cooker. Fill the cooker base with 1 cup water and keep the bowl with the rice and the measured amount of water inside. Cooking procedure and time will be the same as usual. This way you can avoid rice burning at the bottom.